AT&T Expands iPhone 3GS Upgrade Price Eligibility

Annoyed that you aren't eligible for the iPhone 3GS upgrade pricing of $199 and $299 for the 16GB and 32GB models, respectively? You might be in luck!

AT&T has decided to extend this price to those eligible for a device upgrade in July, August, and September. The pricing should be available to qualifying customers as of tomorrow. Good thing the pre-orders are sold out, right?

I, unfortunately, am not up for an upgrade until December. Guess I'll be waiting.

Click through for the statement from AT&T.

Importantly, we want our customers to better understand our wireless device upgrade program. Like most U.S. carriers, we offer a variety of phones that we sell below our actual cost when customers agree to sign service agreements. In general, the more a customer spends with us, the quicker they become eligible for a price break on a new device. For example, iPhone customers who spend more than $99 a month per line with us generally are eligible for an upgrade between 12 and 18 months into their contract.

We also currently offer early upgrade pricing only for iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3G.

All of that said, we've been listening to our customers. And since many of our iPhone 3G customers are early adopters and literally weeks shy of being upgrade eligible due to iPhone 3G S launching 11 months after iPhone 3G, we're extending the window of upgrade eligibility for a limited time.

We're now pleased to offer our iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 our best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18.

This statement reads as: 'We just spent two weeks getting calls non-stop from angry Apple fanboys complaining that they can't get the discount price, but we still aren't going to extend this discount to everyone. Also, you still can't have MMS or tethering because we didn't do our homework.'

Some blogs are reporting that this actually means that customers that purchased the iPhone 3G in July through September of 2008 are eligible, but that's not how it reads to me.